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patrons

Hi!

I'm Andrew McLuhan. Marshall McLuhan was my grandfather. (If you don't know who that was, that's part of the reason I am here.)

I am building The McLuhan Institute to continue the work he and my father Eric McLuhan began in understanding the nature of media. If I am successful, TMI (yes, intentional) will be a world-class research institute, archive, museum, centre for learning and exploration, refuge and incubator for all kinds of arts. It will be the home of McLuhan studies. It will be located in Picton, Ontario, and it will be open to the public.

The value I bring is the access I have to all sorts of obscure and
unconventional McLuhan material, my familiarity with it, and my ability to be able to 'translate' it to regular people who are unfamiliar with the work.

There is literally several lifetimes
worth of material to explore, and I can save you a lot of time by pointing you toward what you're after depending on your interests.

Our archive and collection is one of the
largest in the world, and has things unavailable anywhere else. Your
support helps me dig through and organize our collections, and share
interesting and relevant gems through the official Estate of Marshall McLuhan and The McLuhan Institute pages on Facebook, and via the NEW DEW NEWSletter
which I will mail out to you if you subscribe or sign up as a patron
here at the Elocutio level or above.

I can also answer most questions
about Marshall McLuhan and his work, or research, or point you to the
answers you're after. Custom research or consulting is available.

I am starting this Patreon page as a way to allow me the time and space to go deeper into archiving, studying and developing McLuhan work and TMI. As the Institute grows, I will need less support, but to get to the point of sustainability and beyond will take a team effort.

At one time, Marshall McLuhan inspired and gave hope to the world. It's time to do that again.

> > >

McLuhan's methods didn't make him a prophet - it allowed him to study the present. When everyone else is living in the past, someone understanding the present looks like they're predicting the future.

"Actually, in this case as in most of my work, I’m “predicting” what has
already happened and merely extrapolating a current process to its
logical conclusion."[Marshall McLuhan, Playboy interview, 1969]

"Since any new technology is always used to perform the old jobs, that
is, since the new form inevitably takes all existing media as its
content, there is no need for prophecy concerning the use to which the
new item will be put: that is entirely predictable. However, the
transforming power of the new forms is another matter and one in dire
need of some prophesying."[Eric McLuhan, 2014]

For years, I've studied my family's work and wanted to be involved. The thing is, I am not an academic. So I have found other ways to be involved.

Though I followed Eric McLuhan around for almost a decade, traveling with him on speaking engagements and learned everything I could, I didn't go to university. When I graduated high school, the last thing I wanted to do was more school. I wanted to write poetry and play punk rock. (Still do!) Instead, I've run a small business restoring and reupholstering antique and vintage furniture, and I have a wife, the remarkable Ronika, and two amazing little boys, Ezra and Virgil. I spent all the extra time I could bugging my dad with questions, trying to read all the books he urged me to.

Eric McLuhan, who died while we were in Colombia together in May 2018, was a true scholar. He spent about 15 years studying and working with his father Marshall McLuhan. He had several degrees both earned and honorific. He wrote and published with his father and after Marshall died in 1980, he spent the rest of his life continuing the work they started.

Eric McLuhan's last speech 'Media Ecology in the 21st Century' was a master work and a way forward, urging us to be bold and to have courage. Here is his hand-written note, added at the last minute to his speech:

With all the courage and boldness I can muster, I am launching The McLuhan Institute, and asking for your support.

I want to learn more, and I want to help others learn.

The McLuhan Institute is for everyone, but especially for people like me who are interested in trying to understand the world around us but don't have a university degree or access to higher education or its resources.

My goal is to make the benefit of Marshall McLuhan and Eric McLuhan's work available for all who wish to learn the practical tools they developed for exploring the effects of technologies. We're interested less in what we do with technology than what technology does to us.

> > >

For a few years now I have been writing and teaching and speaking to audiences young and old about these topics. My objective is always to speak in the simplest terms possible. These are complicated subjects - these are complicated times! - but they don't have to be incomprehensible. That is to say that with a bit of work, anyone can understand what Marshall and Eric McLuhan tried to tell us.

I don't have a university degree, but I am very passionate about my family's work, and I know my way around it. I have much to learn, and with my father gone I am on my own, but I know where to find the answers, and my goal is to pass them on.

I can't create this Institute without your support. A lot of people don't think I can do this because I'm not looking to create a business with products and profits. I certainly have plans to make things, and I believe that the McLuhan Institute can be sustainable, but to get it off the ground I need believers and donors, not investors.

Other people don't believe I can do it because to reach the ultimate goal of a McLuhan Institute building in Picton, I will need a lot of money. Like, a lot. But the money is out there. The need is plain. I truly believe that TMI can make a giant contribution to sorting out the mess we're in, and I know that others believe in me.

I believe in access for all. I don't intend to prioritize certain people because they give money, at the expense of shutting anyone else out because they don't or can't.

I believe that we can do better, as a society. So did Marshall and Eric McLuhan. Marshall made it clear that we can understand our situation, and do something about it. We don't have to be victims, constantly trying to catch up to consequences - with some work, we can get ahead, make smarter decisions. The sorts of decisions we have to make will make some people, who prioritize profits over people, very upset.

"Because of today’s terrific speed-up of information moving, we have a
chance to apprehend, predict and influence the environmental forces
shaping us — and thus win back control of our own destinies. The new
extensions of man and the environment they generate are the central
manifestations of the evolutionary process, and yet we still cannot free
ourselves of the delusion that it is how a medium is used that counts,
rather than what it does to us and with us. This is the zombie stance of
the technological idiot. It’s to escape this Narcissus trance that I’ve
tried to trace and reveal the impact of media on man, from the
beginning of recorded time to the present."[Marshall McLuhan, Playboy interview, 1969]

I can promise you that my McLuhan Institute will be a leader in exploring the effects of human technologies. Founded on the same principles with which Marshall McLuhan created his Centre for Culture and Technology back in the 1960s to investigate using all means available in the arts and sciences, we will explore and test and push.

I can promise you that I will do my best to have TMI be as accessible as possible to anyone who wants to learn, regardless of level of education or income.

I can promise you that at the McLuhan Institute, you will be challenged and stimulated. You will find much more than the usual McLuhan quotes and works. You will find tools. You will find support. You will find art and artists. You will save time.

If I am able to see The McLuhan Institute though from a dream to a fantastic building in Picton, I can promise you all that and more.

Winnipigeon

$5 or more per month

Welcome to the flock! As a Winnipigeon, you will receive:

>> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead + a vintage 'choc-a-block' card from the Centre
>> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute

Elocutio

$25 or more per month

As an Elocutionist you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.

Dispositio

$100 or more per month

As a patron at the Dispositio level, you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.
> Receive a copy of the original 1969 DEW-Line card deck

Memoria

$200 or more per month

As a patron at the Memoria level, you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.
> Receive a copy of the original 1969 DEW-Line card deck
> Receive an off-print or magazine from the McLuhan Bookshop

Actio

$300 or more per month

As a patron at the Actio level, you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.
> Receive a copy of the original 1969 DEW-Line card deck
> Receive an item every month, for a year, from the McLuhan Bookshop

Goals

The more I make, the more I can devote my time to archival projects and new work.

When I reach $500 I'll be well on my way to making The McLuhan Institute a thing!

1 of 1

Hi!

I'm Andrew McLuhan. Marshall McLuhan was my grandfather. (If you don't know who that was, that's part of the reason I am here.)

I am building The McLuhan Institute to continue the work he and my father Eric McLuhan began in understanding the nature of media. If I am successful, TMI (yes, intentional) will be a world-class research institute, archive, museum, centre for learning and exploration, refuge and incubator for all kinds of arts. It will be the home of McLuhan studies. It will be located in Picton, Ontario, and it will be open to the public.

The value I bring is the access I have to all sorts of obscure and
unconventional McLuhan material, my familiarity with it, and my ability to be able to 'translate' it to regular people who are unfamiliar with the work.

There is literally several lifetimes
worth of material to explore, and I can save you a lot of time by pointing you toward what you're after depending on your interests.

Our archive and collection is one of the
largest in the world, and has things unavailable anywhere else. Your
support helps me dig through and organize our collections, and share
interesting and relevant gems through the official Estate of Marshall McLuhan and The McLuhan Institute pages on Facebook, and via the NEW DEW NEWSletter
which I will mail out to you if you subscribe or sign up as a patron
here at the Elocutio level or above.

I can also answer most questions
about Marshall McLuhan and his work, or research, or point you to the
answers you're after. Custom research or consulting is available.

I am starting this Patreon page as a way to allow me the time and space to go deeper into archiving, studying and developing McLuhan work and TMI. As the Institute grows, I will need less support, but to get to the point of sustainability and beyond will take a team effort.

At one time, Marshall McLuhan inspired and gave hope to the world. It's time to do that again.

> > >

McLuhan's methods didn't make him a prophet - it allowed him to study the present. When everyone else is living in the past, someone understanding the present looks like they're predicting the future.

"Actually, in this case as in most of my work, I’m “predicting” what has
already happened and merely extrapolating a current process to its
logical conclusion."[Marshall McLuhan, Playboy interview, 1969]

"Since any new technology is always used to perform the old jobs, that
is, since the new form inevitably takes all existing media as its
content, there is no need for prophecy concerning the use to which the
new item will be put: that is entirely predictable. However, the
transforming power of the new forms is another matter and one in dire
need of some prophesying."[Eric McLuhan, 2014]

For years, I've studied my family's work and wanted to be involved. The thing is, I am not an academic. So I have found other ways to be involved.

Though I followed Eric McLuhan around for almost a decade, traveling with him on speaking engagements and learned everything I could, I didn't go to university. When I graduated high school, the last thing I wanted to do was more school. I wanted to write poetry and play punk rock. (Still do!) Instead, I've run a small business restoring and reupholstering antique and vintage furniture, and I have a wife, the remarkable Ronika, and two amazing little boys, Ezra and Virgil. I spent all the extra time I could bugging my dad with questions, trying to read all the books he urged me to.

Eric McLuhan, who died while we were in Colombia together in May 2018, was a true scholar. He spent about 15 years studying and working with his father Marshall McLuhan. He had several degrees both earned and honorific. He wrote and published with his father and after Marshall died in 1980, he spent the rest of his life continuing the work they started.

Eric McLuhan's last speech 'Media Ecology in the 21st Century' was a master work and a way forward, urging us to be bold and to have courage. Here is his hand-written note, added at the last minute to his speech:

With all the courage and boldness I can muster, I am launching The McLuhan Institute, and asking for your support.

I want to learn more, and I want to help others learn.

The McLuhan Institute is for everyone, but especially for people like me who are interested in trying to understand the world around us but don't have a university degree or access to higher education or its resources.

My goal is to make the benefit of Marshall McLuhan and Eric McLuhan's work available for all who wish to learn the practical tools they developed for exploring the effects of technologies. We're interested less in what we do with technology than what technology does to us.

> > >

For a few years now I have been writing and teaching and speaking to audiences young and old about these topics. My objective is always to speak in the simplest terms possible. These are complicated subjects - these are complicated times! - but they don't have to be incomprehensible. That is to say that with a bit of work, anyone can understand what Marshall and Eric McLuhan tried to tell us.

I don't have a university degree, but I am very passionate about my family's work, and I know my way around it. I have much to learn, and with my father gone I am on my own, but I know where to find the answers, and my goal is to pass them on.

I can't create this Institute without your support. A lot of people don't think I can do this because I'm not looking to create a business with products and profits. I certainly have plans to make things, and I believe that the McLuhan Institute can be sustainable, but to get it off the ground I need believers and donors, not investors.

Other people don't believe I can do it because to reach the ultimate goal of a McLuhan Institute building in Picton, I will need a lot of money. Like, a lot. But the money is out there. The need is plain. I truly believe that TMI can make a giant contribution to sorting out the mess we're in, and I know that others believe in me.

I believe in access for all. I don't intend to prioritize certain people because they give money, at the expense of shutting anyone else out because they don't or can't.

I believe that we can do better, as a society. So did Marshall and Eric McLuhan. Marshall made it clear that we can understand our situation, and do something about it. We don't have to be victims, constantly trying to catch up to consequences - with some work, we can get ahead, make smarter decisions. The sorts of decisions we have to make will make some people, who prioritize profits over people, very upset.

"Because of today’s terrific speed-up of information moving, we have a
chance to apprehend, predict and influence the environmental forces
shaping us — and thus win back control of our own destinies. The new
extensions of man and the environment they generate are the central
manifestations of the evolutionary process, and yet we still cannot free
ourselves of the delusion that it is how a medium is used that counts,
rather than what it does to us and with us. This is the zombie stance of
the technological idiot. It’s to escape this Narcissus trance that I’ve
tried to trace and reveal the impact of media on man, from the
beginning of recorded time to the present."[Marshall McLuhan, Playboy interview, 1969]

I can promise you that my McLuhan Institute will be a leader in exploring the effects of human technologies. Founded on the same principles with which Marshall McLuhan created his Centre for Culture and Technology back in the 1960s to investigate using all means available in the arts and sciences, we will explore and test and push.

I can promise you that I will do my best to have TMI be as accessible as possible to anyone who wants to learn, regardless of level of education or income.

I can promise you that at the McLuhan Institute, you will be challenged and stimulated. You will find much more than the usual McLuhan quotes and works. You will find tools. You will find support. You will find art and artists. You will save time.

If I am able to see The McLuhan Institute though from a dream to a fantastic building in Picton, I can promise you all that and more.

Winnipigeon

$5 or more per month

Welcome to the flock! As a Winnipigeon, you will receive:

>> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead + a vintage 'choc-a-block' card from the Centre
>> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute

Elocutio

$25 or more per month

As an Elocutionist you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.

Dispositio

$100 or more per month

As a patron at the Dispositio level, you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.
> Receive a copy of the original 1969 DEW-Line card deck

Memoria

$200 or more per month

As a patron at the Memoria level, you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.
> Receive a copy of the original 1969 DEW-Line card deck
> Receive an off-print or magazine from the McLuhan Bookshop

Actio

$300 or more per month

As a patron at the Actio level, you will:

> Receive a mailed letter of thanks written on vintage Centre for Culture and Technology letterhead
> Be listed as 'founding member' of The McLuhan Institute
> Receive a subscription to the NEW DEW, the monthly newsletter of TMI.
> Receive a copy of the original 1969 DEW-Line card deck
> Receive an item every month, for a year, from the McLuhan Bookshop